


A little TLC

by MisSuzyQ



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 06:17:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2457923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisSuzyQ/pseuds/MisSuzyQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>lass="Standard"><em><strong>Author’s Note:</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et27hTN_msA">Link </a>for the song so you too will know how depressing it really is my little drops of sunny goodness! And if you have no idea who Flannery O’Conner is, here’s “<a href="https://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html">A Good Man’s Hard </a>to Find” so you get the idea of how crazy but good her stories are.</em></p></blockquote>





	A little TLC

Noises didn’t travel well through Engineer’s wooden front door into Soldier’s ear pressed against it. Sure there was some noise, but it was too muffled to know what it was. It was strange. Maybe Engineer made a new weapon of death and that was its strange sound that he heard. He could have been carried away with building the new machine to remember to show up to work. There was only one sure way to know.

“I’m coming in Dell,” Soldier exclaimed as he kicked the door open with shotgun in hand. Floors throughout Engineer’s home were clean and lacked any new objects. Part of Soldier felt sad to not to blow off the face of a giant robot of death. All of him was surprised when he entered the home and the basset hound failed to greet him. Instead, Betsy sat looking into the bathroom, rising to her paws when Engineer stepped out.

 Soldier felt a sudden weight on his heart as Engineer stared at him. Usually Engineer was vibrant and bright with personality but there he stood dimly without his Gunslinger, his skin lacking its bright color, faint violet circles under his dull green eyes.The Texan accent was nearly drained from his weary voice as he asked, “is that there shotgun ta put me out of my misery?”

“Dell!” Soldier tossed the firearm over his shoulder, not distracted by the sound of it firing upon hitting the porch as he ran to the tired body. Placing his hands on Engineer’s cheeks, he could feel heat radiating from the skin and a slight shivering as the bald head absorbed the natural warmth from his palms. “Marry, Mother and Joseph!” Soldier only removed his hands to throw off his gear onto the floor.

 “It’s nothin’ but a vicious lil’ ol’ stomach bug. Ain’t gonna die no time soon. Sure makes me feel like I’m dyin’ though.” Engineer coughed into his hand, relieved that there was no vomit. “Musta caught it from someone at the hardware store. I said that in the note sent ya. Y’know, that note Pyro gave ya to tell ya to stay home?”

 “I didn’t get a note from Pyro,” Soldier said while taking off the comfort of his red coat.

 Upon hearing his name, Pyro stepped into the hallway. Engineer turned around. Both of them eyed him. “Boy, didja burn that note that I told ya to give Jane?” Silence. “Ya did, didn’t ya? Well ya sure ain’t gonna be my messenger no more.”The firebug covered the lenses with his hands as a low, sorrowful weeze escaped from the gas mask. Suddenly a pair of muscular arms wrapped tightly around Engineer. He could barely keep his knees from buckling as he melted into the loving contact through the fabric of the coat. On his shoulder a chin rested.

 “I would have come with or without that note.” Fingers blocked Soldier’s lips from pecking Engineer.

 “Don’t needja to get like me. Go home.”

 “But you’re the most handsome man to look like utter shit in the history of the whole world!” Engineer smiled at Soldier’s response as if he wanted to laugh but was too tired to make the noise. “I will not let my handsome man be alone in his time of need! I will stay here and tend to you!”

 “Ain’t you just so kind?” Squeezing his arms upward, Engineer slid his arms into the sleeves.“Alrighty. Get me medicine if you’re so keen on helpin’ me.”

 “Roger that!”

 Engineer nearly fell to his face when Soldier ripped his arms away. Somehow he managed to use the forward motion to start shuffling towards the bookshelf. “I’ll be yonder,” he mumbled at his destination.Betsy stayed close at his side, persuading him to pick Flannery O’Conner’s short stories over yet another novel about the universe and laying over his feet when he plopped into the recliner. He had barely started _A Good Man is Hard to Find_ when Soldier leapt onto his lap, holding a cup with a maroon liquid in it. His lover was speaking but the sudden burst of soreness and the desperation for a temporary fix didn’t allow him to hear the words. Hands shaking, he put the cup to the lips and down the liquid. A sudden burst of warmth was in his chest and a masked familiar taste lingered in his mouth. “Son, didja done went and put alcohol in this?”

 “I told you, Dell,” Soldier explained, “whisky is the way that real men take medicine.” Though Engineer wanted to call Soldier out on his dumbass-ery, he nervously waited for the whiskey to take its toll on his weak body first. There wasn’t any reaction, strangely enough. “See? Now what are you reading?” Soldier put his arm around Engineer and found himself pushed onto the cold hardwood.

 “Don’t needja ta breathin’ in my bug,” Engineer said, eyes winding down the words of the short story.

 “And where will I sit?”

 “Floor’s plenty comfy.”

 “Anti-cuddler!”Rolling backwards, Soldier lost his helmet and stood up to rush in front of the bookshelf. He pulled out a novel without bothering to look at the title. At the side of the recliner he returned, lying on his back. It ached him to not hold Engineer in his suffering but he was going to forget it through the words on the pages .The opened book he held above his face blocked out most of the light. Two paragraphs in and there were sentences Soldier had no idea how to comprehend. Two agonizing pages later he looked to Betsy for comfort. Her chocolate eyes told him that he should have known better than to blindly pull a book off of Engineer’s shelf.

 The novel slipped out of Soldier’s hands and dropped onto his face. Sliding it down a little, he watched Engineer occasionally raise his eyebrow as he read through O’Connor’s works. That man looked incredibly weak. It hurt to see. He wanted to squeeze his strength into Engineer and yet, Engineer looked content, like he had found a calm in his overbearing weakness. That calm was something he didn’t want to take. So he stayed on the floor with a pain in his chest.

 Seconds loudly ticked away into evening. Soldier knew it was dinner time before adjusting his head to gaze at the grandfather clock. He informed Engineer that it was time to eat but his speech was muffled by text. Throwing the book into the bookshelf, Soldier said, “chow time.”

 “I ain’t been keepin’ food down none too well but you can go on and get ya some supper.”

 “What?” Soldier shot up to his feet. “I’m making you chow and you’re going to eat it and like it!” Thoughtlessly, Soldier punched Engineer on the arm. “Sorry sickie,” he muttered as Engineer rubbed his muscle.

 “Fine, make somethin’ that ain’t gonna make me up-chuck. Y’know, like grits.”

 “Yes sir!” With a salute, Soldier headed off into the kitchen.

 Luckily Soldier had plenty of experience making grits. It was the only manly grain breakfast food in his opinion and as such was one of the few things he had for a morning meal. Pyro assisted in boiling the water and heating the pan that held his steak. Glancing back, he felt guilt settle in. That man over there in the recliner couldn’t eat anything delicious. How torturous would it be for Engineer to watch him eat something so savory and perfectly meaty? Soldier prodded the cut of beef before tossing it into Betsy’s bowl.

 Soon the grains had reached grit perfection. He assigned Pyro the duty of taking dinner to their dog while he carried two grit-filled bowls into the living room. The four of them sat quietly in the living room with only Pyro not partaking food. Soldier watched Engineer, especially as Engineer kept jerking his head upwards and struggled to keep both eyes opened.

 “You need to sleep, Private Conagher,” Soldier said.

 “Yeah, don’t I know it?” The legs under Engineer trembled as he rose from the recliner. Betsy stretched her legs before lifting her weight off his feet. To the bathroom he walked with his shadow’s claws clanking on the floor as she followed.

 “Hey, Pyro, you got blankets around here?” Leaving the bowls down on the floor, Soldier followed Pyro to the closet were quilts where stashed. Together they pulled out all of them. The quilts had burnt edges but somehow they managed to find one that wasn’t nearly as burnt. Sneaking over to the bathroom, Soldier unfolded the blanket and waited with Betsy. The moment Engineer emerged, Soldier wrapped Engineer in the quilt and scooped him up. “Ah-ha! I caught you!”

 “Jane what the hell are you doin’,” Engineer asked, too drowsy to struggle against the cocoon.

 “I’m taking you to bed! Pyro! The door!” The pyromaniac was more than eager to open the bedroom door.Betsy closely supervised Soldier as he carried the sick Engineer into the bedroom. “The sheets!” Rushing in, Pyro pull down the sheets and pulled them back up after Engineer was gently dropped onto the mattress. Barking echoed in the room. It instantly stopped the moment Soldier placed the basset hound onto the bed before leaping on the other side of the bed. Clapping his hands, Pyro decided he too should be on the bed.

 All Engineer could do was watch as he became swamped with bodies. On his right he had a dog that snuggled into him and used his shoulder as a pillow. At his feet the masked roommate huddled overhis feet. On his left, the one person he didn’t want to catch his illness leaned into him, pressed his warm lips firmly onto his cheek, and slid his hands under layers of fabric to feel his heart beating. He longed for that contact only his love on could provide, but he wanted Soldier a million miles away. “Please, Jane,” he struggled against sleep to say. “ya don’t deserve ta get this bad sick on account of me.” His head dropped into the pillow to look Soldier in the eyes. “Please, leave me be.”

 “No can do,” Soldier exclaimed, pressing his nose onto Engineer’s. “I can’t abandon you even if my healthy body was at risk! Which I’m not because I can’t get sick! But if I could get sick I’d still stay because you’re worth getting sick over, Dell!”

 “And why’s that?”

 Perhaps it was the rainy day out on Sawmill that caused Soldier’s answer. Maybe it was the lack of energy emitted from Engineer through the course of that day that made him realize how precious and central that life was to his existence. Or it could have been that he seemingly heard that song several times growing up. Whatever inspired it, Soldier reply was, “you are my sunshine.”

 The corny response caused Engineer to feel a spark of life for the first time that day and his eyes to become brighter with love. Soldier kissed the smile that shined with his sudden happiness. “I’ll let ya stay if and ya sing that song.”

 “For you, I can do that.” Rolling his fingers on Engineer’s chest, Soldier searched his mind for the correct lyrics. As he sang in with his scratchy voice, Engineer closed his heavy eyes with his smile still beaming.

_The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping_

_I dreamed held you in my arms_

_But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken_

_And I hung my head and I cried_

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine_

_You make me happy when skies are gray_

_You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you_

_Please don’t take my sunshine away._

The rest of the lyrics were too depressing so he tried his own version.

_When we capture our God-given control point_

_You manage to defend it with much ease_

_And we kill all those BLU sons-a-bitches_

_Then I carry you home to have sex with me_

“Those are the words you fine lookin’ mother hubber,” Engineer breathed before completely passing out. At long last, he looked happy. He looked like the Engineer he loved so dearly. Soldier wiggled his other arm under the sleeping Engineer, squeezed his hand between Engineer’s side and Betsy, and clung tightly, pouring his affection into the body. Now he was ready to sleep with his lips pressing against the warm forehead. Before he could fully enable himself to rest, he had to complete the song.

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine_

_You make me happy when skies are gray_

_You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you_

_Please don’t take my sunshine away._

_You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you_

_Please don’t take my sunshine away_

**Author's Note:**

> lass="Standard"> _ **Author’s Note:** [Link ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et27hTN_msA)for the song so you too will know how depressing it really is my little drops of sunny goodness! And if you have no idea who Flannery O’Conner is, here’s “[A Good Man’s Hard ](https://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html)to Find” so you get the idea of how crazy but good her stories are._


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